Nado Natterings
A weekly column by David Axelson

21 October 2009 Issue #40

A quick check of the yellow page section of the Coronado phone book over the weekend found that there are four pharmacies doing business on the Island. This bit of sleuthing came as a result of talking to the CHS fall sports coaches and watching a couple of CMS sports events at the end of last week. It seems that the flu and several related illnesses are cutting wide swaths through our local sports teams.

In this, the age of corporate sponsorship, designation as the ‘Official Pharmacy of Coronado Sports’ might have some cachet. Product placement, such as a really large bottle of aspirin on the sideline of each athletic contest, might be beneficial to the locals. Here’s hoping for a quick return to health for all.

Islander Girls Volleyball Wins Twice in Eastern League

One team that has seemingly run the course of their collective illness is the Islander Girls Volleyball Team, which a week ago had to cancel practice because there weren’t enough healthy players to work out. Last week Coronado hosted Morse in Eastern League play and won in three straight, by decisive scores.

Friday afternoon the Islanders ventured to Serra High School, where they tangled with the Lady Conquistadors (which may be a contradiction of terms) in five tough games. Coronado prevailed in the end, 23-25, 25-9, 25-13, 18-25 and 15-13. What made the match additionally exciting was the fact that Coronado trailed 8-3 in the fifth game before rallying for the victory.

“Serra always tends to play well against us,” said Islander Head Coach Leilani Au Hoon. “Their program is definitely getting better. They’re pretty decent.”

When asked who performed well for her club at Serra, Au Hoon said, “Kori Fitzgerald played really well and we gave the game ball to Annie Wilson. We received some really clutch serving at the end of the game from Briana Giorgione. Alanna Pompa and Heather Rowan both really played well.”

In the recent years since Coronado has moved into the Eastern League, seemingly any success in the conference season comes down to how well the Islanders play against the Academy of Our Lady of Peace. This week the Islanders host OLP Wednesday at 3 pm.

“It’s going to be a huge game for us,” said Au Hoon of the OLP battle. “It may decide whether we can win league or not. Now, we are probably in third place (behind Patrick Henry and OLP), but Henry beat OLP and if we can do the same, we will be in the running.”The Islanders second game of the week, also at home, is Friday when Coronado hosts Mission Bay at 3 pm.

Cross Country Report

The Islander medical update continues, this time we jump over to the Cross Country program and Head Coach George Green supplies the report. “The Girls' Cross Country Team encountered a bump in the road in their defense of the Central League cross country title last Thursday, with a 23-32 loss to Clairemont.

It's been a tough three weeks for the girls' team, with the entire varsity squad and a few others coming down with everything from strep throat to pneumonia (one girl had both with an asthma issue to boot).  That said, you have to give credit to Clairemont, as they're an excellent team, probably the best in CIF Division III. But on this day, we simply weren't healthy enough to take them. Only Annie Lovering set a personal best time in the race. But even she, it turned out, was running with strep throat.

The good news is this was a "free meet" and the championship will be determined by the Central League finals. This situation came about by a change in the way the Central League will determine its league standings this season. The teams’ won/loss record and order of finish at the league finals on November 12th will have equal weight.  There will be a tie-breakers based on the order of finish at the finals. So basically it's best "two out of three," with the league finals counting as two.

 The Boys Cross Country Team lost a close race to Clairemont as well, by the score of 25-30. Although not as decimated by health issues as the girls' team, there were a few runners down who, if healthy, could have helped make up the difference.

Ryan Keeney set a personal best mark with a time over the three-mile City Conference Course of 17:25, placing second to Clairemont's star runner, Eamonn McCarey. At first McCarey was holding back in an attempt to finish their top three runners up-front. This was expected, so Keeney pushed the pace forcing McCarey to break free from the lead group.

By then, however, Clairemont's next two competitors were far enough in front to hold on to the third and fourth positions at the finish. Aryan Shay placed fifth in 18:13, followed by Will Funk (sixth in 18:29), Kevin Siefert (seventh in 18:34), Jason Vance (10th), Chase Dalton (11th), Lucas Hemp, Weston Breay and Nick Robles.”

CHS Boys Water Polo Splits Two Games in Western League

At the beginning of the season, Islander Head Coach Randy Burgess stated in this column that Cathedral Catholic’s Boys Water Polo Team might be the team to beat in the Western League and in the CIF Division II Playoffs. Last week’s Islander game schedule began Tuesday at home when Coronado hosted the Dons and the visitors came away with a 9-6 victory.

“We were down 4-1 at the end of the first quarter,” Burgess recounted. “We played them literally even, quarter by quarter, the rest of the way. We didn’t get out of the gate very well. We had issues with starting slowly in the SoCal Tournament. Cathedral is no longer a sleeper. They are a very good team and we have a lot of work ahead of us. We beat them 11-8 in the CIF semis last year and their team returned intact.”

Success in water polo is derived from several elements, among the most important of which is a team’s ability to convert on power plays, when they have a man advantage. Offenses are orchestrated in large part to draw exclusions of opposing players.

Burgess had the applicable stat at hand. “Our power plays were poor and Cathedral was very successful. They converted on six of their nine power plays and we were one for nine. We had a total of 26 shots against Cathedral, but we weren’t real confident.”

Burgess described Wednesday’s practice, which fell between the Cathedral game Tuesday and Thursday’s home game with the Bishop’s School as, “A gut check. We (the coaches) hit a nerve. We were up 8-0 at halftime against Bishop’s and the final score was 12-8. When the momentum shifted back to Bishop’s in the third quarter, Coronado responded really well. That was really important to see.”

Burgess, like most successful coaches, puts great stock in competitive practices. “We had nice practices Wednesday and Friday. The big difference (in the results of the games) was we had much higher quality practices. We put that totally on our team leaders.”

If two tough Western League games weren’t already enough, Coronado hosted Santa Margarita Saturday evening and came away with a 15-9 victory. Senior Rex Butler scored seven goals on 7-10 shooting. “Alex Johnson had three goals and drew five exclusions,” Burgess added. “We were 5-8 in man-ups. It was a close game until the fourth quarter, when we outscored them 5-1. Garrett Sabesky was our goalie for all three games last week.”

This week the Islanders start the week on the road as they travel to Belmont Plaza to take on perennial water polo power Long Beach Wilson. Wednesday Coronado hosts University City at the Brian Bent Memorial Aquatics Complex at 5 pm.

Islander Football Falls to SFC

Santa Fe Christian is one of the few football schools in San Diego County which consistently plays their home games on Saturday afternoons. The atmosphere borders on surreal, as there is usually a middle school-aged touch football game going on behind the visiting bleachers, which is roughly 20 kids on one side and 20 more on the other. 

Add in the fact that the bleachers are almost literally on top of the sidelines and the afternoon in Solana Beach seems like a protracted ride at a busy carnival. In addition to all of that, Santa Fe Christian came into the game with a 5-0 record and it was Homecoming as well.

Played against that back drop was a very physical football game, which the Eagles won 39-17. Although the score was one-sided, both teams battled until the end. “I thought we played really hard,” said Head Coach Bud Mayfield of his club. “Defensively we made them earn every inch. Their big plays hurt us. Other than that, down after down, we really fought them. That was a big improvement for us and the effort I was trying to get. Our kids broke through and blocked extra points late in the game. We were still in the game and still trying. We made a lot of improvement. We obviously were playing a good team.”

Santa Fe Christian ran eight plays from scrimmage that gained 25 yards or more, including efforts of 43, 69, 26, 25, 27, 84, 42, and 64 yards. Coronado countered with five plays of 25 or more yards, including gains of 26, 31, 25, 56 and 43 yards.

Islander quarterback Kodie Englehart spent most of the afternoon running for his life, some of it planned and some not. Englehart rushed 22 times for 93 net yards. When he had time to set his feet and look downfield, that is when his offensive line effectively held their ground, Englehart threw several on-target downfield passes, often for major gains.

Coronado first dented the scoreboard late in the first quarter, with a 36-yard field goal from Andrew Toomey from an Austin Denson hold. Despite three possessions in the second quarter, Coronado couldn’t score and the Eagles held a 23-3 advantage at halftime. With less than a minute remaining in the half, Englehart embarked on one of the best scrambles ever turned in by a prep quarterback, but his desperation pass attempt after dodging seemingly all 11 Eagle defenders, fell incomplete. But it was not for a lack of effort on the senior signal caller’s part.

Then the second longest Homecoming halftime ceremony in Nado Natterer history unfolded. The game clock wound down to zero and was reset twice. Every tuxedo in the place must have magically morphed into a four-day rental.

Despite a couple of decent drives, Coronado didn’t score in the third quarter, but put 14 points up on the board in the fourth frame. Englehart opened the fourth with a 31-yard run and then found Andrew Smith with a 56-yard touchdown pass. Two Islander possessions later Englehart completed a 43-yard pass to Chris Page and then Toomey scored on a three-yard run.

With a touchdown, a field goal and two extra points, Toomey helped account for 11 points for Coronado. In addition, the junior linebacker also was the team’s leading tackler with 12, followed by Austin Copp with 11 tackles and a blocked extra point. Junior Jose Sanchez added 10 tackles, with several of those coming in a strong second half effort.

Coronado’s current won-loss mark of 2-4 looks better when you consider their opposition has been playing well this season. According to Mayfield, Kauai High School, who the Islanders opened their season with on the road, is currently the second ranked team in Hawaii. Olympian will likely go undefeated in their league and Madison continues to play well in the Central League. Santa Fe Christian will likely break into some Top 10 polls before the season concludes.

“Our losses are to really good football teams,” Mayfield said. “Now we are going to even some things up. We’re coming into the other side of the schedule. If we play like we played Saturday, we’ll be fine down the home stretch.”

A total of 12 of the 14 teams in Division IV qualify for the CIF playoffs. “We should be a middle seed,” Mayfield said, “If we finish strong.”

This week the Islanders travel to Crawford for a Friday afternoon game at 3 pm. The Colts are coming off of a 47-7 loss to Clairemont.

CHS Girls Golf Gets Back on Winning Side of Ledger

The Western League is quickly establishing itself as a tough conference in Girls Golf to go with their collective prowess in Girls Soccer, Boys Water Polo, Girls Tennis, Boys Tennis, etc.

In large part due to the strength of their schedule, the Islanders had a five-match losing streak thrust upon them, including a 209-255 loss to Cathedral Catholic at Riverwalk and a 225-251 loss to OLP at Balboa last week.. Wednesday things got better when the Islanders defeated University City 263-289 at Coronado.

Despite the losses, several Islanders posted strong rounds. Jackie Davis shot a 43 against Cathedral, to record her second best score of the season. Andrea Perez carded a 52 and Kayla Englehart shot a 53.

Perez has been ‘caught’ by Head Coach Hanna Cohan playing the Coronado Muni Course before school and on the weekends. “She’s a freshman and she really stands out. Andrea is a product of the Coronado LPGA Girls Golf program, as are Erin Dupree and Liza-Jean Logan. Liza-Jean has been in LPGA Girls program since she was six years old. She also helps out with the Coronado Middle School golf program and does volunteer work at Pro Kids Golf. She loves the game and if we can rein in her putting, she will post some really low scores.”

The aforementioned Logan shot a 48 in the victory over University City and was the match medalist. Emily Bodkin, a junior who started the season with mononucleosis also scored well. “I have to give Emily a lot of credit,” Cohan said. “She stayed with it despite a late start. Her goal is to learn the game.”

This week the Islanders play Scripps Ranch Monday in a match at Torrey Pines. Tuesday the second half of the Islander roster will compete against the Mira Mesa JV team in a match at Sea ‘N Air Golf Course.

CHS Sailing Update

Coronado High School Sailing Team Head Coach Jon Rogers provides information on his team’s first event this year. “The team started its racing season last weekend at the Sea Otter Regatta hosted by California State University at Monterey. In their quest to qualify for the National Championship, Coronado placed ninth in the Gold Division, comprised of 28 teams. The Islanders also placed second in the Silver Division out of 17 schools. .

The highlight of the weekend was Esteban Forrer and Alexa Cavalieri winning the Silver “A” Division easily, finishing first in four of their eight races. Considering this was Esteban’s first high school regatta, it was an impressive beginning.

Gold A was represented by Hans Henken, Chuckie Eaton and Kaitlin Dunphey. Gold B included Philip Lozier, Roman Milioti and Karisa Chapa. Silver B was Patrick Powell and Katie Dowling.

The next event for the team is the Anteater Regatta in December, hosted by the UC Irvine Sailing Team. More info on the team can be found at www.chsst.webs.com.”

Pop Warner Report

Coronado's Junior Midget Pop Warner football team won their first playoff game Saturday, beating La Jolla (White) 8-0. The Islanders now advance to the Divisional Championship Game against the National City Diablos Oct. 24 at Sweetwater High School. 

It was a tough week for the players battling the flu and the heat.  The effects were evident during the game, but every player stepped up, some playing positions they had never played before. All of the team members gave every bit of effort they could to secure the victory. 

Key runs by Marty Dykstra, Robby Weissenfels and Casey McPherson, as well as great open field tackles by Tanner Caldwell, Conner Schulte and Joe Fernandez were critical to the team’s success. The Islanders played phenomenal defense, stopping their opponents five times inside the red zone. Eric Thorliefson and Merrick Painter were dominant on the defensive line and their collective efforts included two quarterback sacks. 

Special thanks to the Junior Midget cheerleaders for supporting their team on a hot day in Lakeside.  They are doing a great job of inspiring the players every week.